Weekend Confidential: Brian Greene

By

Alexandra Wolfe

Updated May 26, 2013 6:12 p.m. ET

The physicist Brian Greene is onstage at Jazz at Lincoln Center, excitedly gesturing to a crowd that includes actor Alan Alda, opera singer Renée Fleming and Nobel Prize winner James Watson. But he isn't presiding over a jam session. He is extolling the drama of scientific discovery at an April gala for the World Science Festival, a five-day annual event in New York City that he co-founded with his wife, Tracy Day. While attendees sip liquid-nitrogen frozen daiquiris and cocktails made with steaming dry ice, Broadway performers...